Organizationhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/feed
enHow to Make or Break a Habithttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/mental-health/how-to-make-or-break-a-habit
<p>New Year&#39;s always dawns with shiny-eyed optimism and bucketfuls of willpower. &nbsp;We decide that this is the year we&#39;ll finally &quot;just do it:&quot; get in shape, get ahead, or get it together. &nbsp;But two weeks in, we&#39;re starting to realize change is easier said than done.&nbsp;</p>
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="224" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/5163/just-do-it-sign.jpg?itok=GXnJQNY_" width="224" /></p>
<p>Before the swoosh, the original Nike was the winged Greek goddess of victory (for you trivia geeks, it&#39;s pronounced &quot;knee-keh&quot;). &nbsp;Who knows if the gods have a problem with abandoning resolutions, but regardless, we mere mortals can achieve victory over our bad habits.</p>
<p>Here are 5 tried and true steps to get you started.&nbsp; Victory shall be yours!</p>
<h2>Step #1: Reality Check &nbsp;</h2>
<p>Make sure this is something&nbsp;you&nbsp;actually&nbsp;want. Ask yourself: Why am I&nbsp;doing this? &nbsp;If the answer starts with a hedge like, &ldquo;Well, it would probably be good if I&hellip;,&rdquo; &nbsp;or &ldquo;I should maybe&hellip;,&rdquo; it may be time for a rethink. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Also, for&nbsp;<em><em>whom</em></em>&nbsp;are you doing this? &nbsp;If no one could see you and you were guaranteed not to get any recognition, gold stars, or pats on the back, would you still do it? &nbsp;If you feel some misgivings rumbling in your gut, consider changing your goal to one that puts a smile on your face and butterflies (the good kind!) in your stomach.</p>
<h2>Step #2: Make Your Task Specific</h2>
<p>Oftentimes our goals are vague, like &ldquo;Feel better,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Stop getting in my own way.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>These vague ideas are hard to carry out. It&#39;s time to bring on the concrete mixer. &nbsp;A concrete goal is something that you can either&nbsp;measure&nbsp;or&nbsp;observe.&nbsp; &ldquo;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/weight-loss">Lose weight</a>&rdquo; becomes &ldquo;Be a size 10.&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Feel better&rdquo; becomes &ldquo;Get <a href="/node/3047">8 hours of sleep each night</a>.&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Socialize more&rdquo; becomes &ldquo;Join two community groups and stick with it.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Step #3: Break it Down Into Ridiculously Small Steps</h2>
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="168" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/5163/baby-steps-books.jpg?itok=KQui5iYC" width="224" />If you&rsquo;re feeling anxious, reluctant, or intimidated by a task looming on the horizon, break it down into ridiculously small steps.&nbsp; And by ridiculously small, I mean truly ridiculous.&nbsp; You want to zoom in, <em>way</em> in.&nbsp; Not only should you not be able to see the forest, you shouldn&rsquo;t even be able to see a tree.&nbsp;&nbsp; To extend the analogy, you should be focused only on one leaf or one branch.&nbsp; Zooming in this far allows you to forget the rest of the task and keeps you from feeling overwhelmed.</p>
<p>For example, one of my patients&mdash;we&rsquo;ll call him Jeff&mdash;has <a href="/node/1260">diabetes</a>.&nbsp; Last year he reluctantly committed to exercising 3 times a week because his doctor told him it was either that or some minor consequence like dying prematurely. &nbsp;Hmm. &nbsp; Despite the motivator of adding years to his life, it was overwhelming to go from being a couch potato to a gym bunny.&nbsp; No wonder the remote had stayed in his hand for so long! &nbsp;Whenever it was time to go to the gym, Jeff made excuses. It was too intimidating.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But then he broke down the arduous task into bite-sized pieces......</p>
<hr />
<p>So instead of flipping back to Bravo, he made one ridiculously small step after another. &nbsp;His first step was to eat a banana.&nbsp; Second was to find his gym clothes.&nbsp; Third was to change his clothes. &nbsp;Fourth was to find his car keys. &nbsp; Fifth was to drive to the gym. He didn&rsquo;t let himself think about the next step until he was done with the current step. &nbsp;And banana by banana, Jeff got to the gym 3 times a week.</p>
<p>If you feel the least bit overwhelmed or resistant with each step, break it down further. &nbsp;Make peeling the banana a separate step if you must. &nbsp;Make tying each shoe two separate steps. &nbsp;No one has to know but you. &nbsp;(By the way, for some extra brainpower on this topic,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/get-it-done-guy">Get-It-Done Guy</a> has an excellent episode on <a href="/node/2045">breaking tasks down into small, easy chunks.</a>)</p>
<h2>Step #4: Make it Brainless</h2>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-right"><span>If it&rsquo;s not convenient and easy, you</span><span>&rsquo;re not going to stick with the change.</span></p>
<p>If it&rsquo;s not convenient and easy, you&rsquo;re not going to stick with the change. &nbsp;If you have a recurring goal, link it to something you do routinely already. &nbsp;This often requires some change in your surroundings to include cues or reminders. &nbsp;For example, if the goal is to remember to take an oft-forgotten medication, link it to brushing your teeth in the morning and put the bottle next to your toothbrush in the medicine cabinet. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Changing your surroundings or routine to make things convenient may require some substantial inconvenience at the beginning.&nbsp; For example, you may need to invest some time in changing your gym membership to a nearby location rather than the one by your old office. &nbsp;But once everything is automated, linked, and convenient, your already-established habits will kick in and take over, like The Blob engulfing and assimilating your new goal (but in a good way).</p>
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="155" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/5163/nike-goddess.jpg?itok=lPqW8GYu" width="224" /></p>
<h2>Step #5: It Will Feel Wrong and Awkward at First</h2>
<p>The first few times you do almost anything new, it&rsquo;s not going to be particularly rewarding. &nbsp;At your first <a href="/node/2277">Pilates </a>class, you won&rsquo;t know what equipment to fetch. &nbsp;Your first <a href="/node/5252">book club meeting</a> will be awkward. &nbsp;During your attempt to <a href="/node/5005">write your children&#39;s book</a>, you&#39;ll probably end up surfing on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/quickdirtytips" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. &nbsp;No matter what you try, you will probably be <a href="/node/2052">anxious</a>. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/savvy-psychologist"><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/5163/SavvyPsychologist_pod.jpg?itok=Fzm_HbDi" /></a>Here&rsquo;s where imperfection is encouraged. &nbsp;Give yourself permission to get it wrong, screw it up, and do it badly. &nbsp;Just keep showing up, fine-tuning your system, and see what happens.</p>
<p>So there we go.&nbsp; Commit to a change, start out with 5 steps, achieve victory.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Hey, maybe you <em>are</em> a god or goddess!</p>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=CLT2voKZI8ReCsZF4nMlZA&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=just+do+it&amp;photos=on&amp;illustrations=on&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1&amp;secondary_submit=Search#id=140318155&amp;src=CHiAXVYi7GSu3WkP4oWFFg-1-1" target="_blank">Just do it sign</a><span>,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=CHiAXVYi7GSu3WkP4oWFFg&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=small+steps&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=71154418&amp;src=jHaJubjLapubPP8Ra8vGFQ-1-1" target="_blank">baby steps</a><span>, and&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=08hUIxhuMdsbJ0FMHxo7UA&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=nike+goddess&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=51372442&amp;src=UXfT6vdPQ8XzzhbpdgNbiA-1-1" target="_blank">Nike</a><span>&nbsp;images courtesy of Shutterstock.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p class="qdt-adv-rte">Disclaimer: All content is strictly for informational purposes only. This content does not substitute any medical advice, and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your personal health provider. Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all health related questions.</p>Fri, 02 Dec 2016 10:53:30 -0500Fri, 02 Dec 2016 10:53:30 -0500http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/mental-health/how-to-make-or-break-a-habitManage Your Priority Emails with This Simple Tagging Tiphttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/email/manage-your-priority-emails-with-this-simple-tagging-tip
<p>Email! I just love email &hellip; no, I don&rsquo;t. I hate email. Especially because there&rsquo;s so darned much of it. Most of us are pretty fed up with it, but we can&rsquo;t stop sending it. On the receiving end, we get a hundred emails a day, which range from useless to incredibly important.<img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="448" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8788/email.jpg?itok=ys_QGbae" width="448" /></p>
<p>You want to handle the urgent emails before the others, but they&rsquo;re all mashed in together, like a glorious Hungarian goulash (which I hear is pretty darned glorious). One solution is to do what the most powerful people all do: create a high priority inbox on your own private email server in your basement and make sure all the other powerful people have that special email address.</p>
<p>But then you&rsquo;ll discover, to your horror, that powerful people also want to send you funny jokes, top&ndash;10 lists, and their personal endorsement for &ldquo;this great new body part enhancement formula that&nbsp;<em>really</em>&nbsp;works!&rdquo; And even with a legitimate conversation, you won&rsquo;t always know it&rsquo;s high priority when it starts. A conversation might become important halfway through. Or unimportant halfway through. Or people might send important stuff to your low priority inbox. It&rsquo;s a mess and for perhaps the first time in all of human history, there&rsquo;s no app you can download to solve the problem! (Did you catch the irony there? I was trying to be subtle.)</p>
<p>It would seem the only solution is to return to the world of mind-numbing drudgery, and categorize inboxes message by message, since the separate-email-addresses trick isn&rsquo;t working. But we&rsquo;re smarter than that! As Masters of Our Universe, we have other tools at hand. We can tag our email bodies for a sorting system as flexible as it is powerful.</p>
<h2 id="Usetagstosortbypriority">Use tags to sort by priority</h2>
<p>Putting tags in the email body lets you auto-sort between high and low priority inboxes. It does the same work as email-address-based sorting, but no extra addresses to manage! No risk of anyone getting ahold of your high priority email address&mdash;not the paparazzi, not Vladimir Putin, no one.</p>
<p>A tag is a sequence of characters you sneakily add to your email signature. A tag is short, discreet, and unique, like some of the people I&rsquo;ve dated. So what would you use for a tag that means &ldquo;high priority?&rdquo; To you and me, the answer is obvious: zplf.</p>
<p>With your tag chosen, you next set up a folder in your email called &ldquo;High priority inbox.&rdquo; Then you create a rule in your email program so any time a message contains ZPLF it gets moved to that folder. If you use webmail like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or FastMail, you can make the sorting happen by setting up a rule directly in the service. If you read your program through a program like Outlook or Apple Mail, most email reading programs also let you set up rules to move a message to a folder once it&rsquo;s fetched from the server.</p>
<p>When your unsuspecting conversational partner replies to your message, they almost always include previous messages in the thread. Well, that previous message contains your high-priority code. So once you put the code into an email conversation, replies to that message will&nbsp;<em>also</em>&nbsp;go into your high priority inbox. Sneaky, eh?</p>
<hr />
<h2>Use disappearing ink</h2>
<p>Say you&rsquo;re corresponding with your secret overseas contact, arranging for an office visit next week where they&rsquo;ll deliver &ldquo;the papers.&rdquo; Instead of using a special email address for the conversation, use a tag in the email body to shunt the conversation into your top secret inbox. But you&rsquo;ll have to be careful. A big bold ZPLF tag will stick out in the middle of your courteous welcome letter. Your contact will figure out your scheme and start putting ZPLF in the cat picture messages they send you, because they truly believe&nbsp;<a href="https://memegenerator.net/Grumpy-Cat" target="_blank">the new Grumpy Cat meme</a>&nbsp;belongs in your high priority inbox.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-left">Even their unsuspecting replies will have the code, and get sorted into high priority.</p>
<p>Well, if they can play Spy versus Spy, so can you. Use tags written in invisible ink! Put your code quietly below your signature, and use your email editor to color the text white. Since it&rsquo;s white text against a white background, it will be as invisible as Uma Thurman riding a polar bear through a snowstorm. But your sorting rule is colorblind, and it will still move the ZPLF message into your high-priority inbox. Your well-meaning-but-grumpy associate won&rsquo;t have a clue they&rsquo;re being sorted and selected.</p>
<h2 id="Addordroptagstochangepriorities">Add or drop tags to change priorities</h2>
<p>Except if they drift off topic, they might drop from &ldquo;important&rdquo; back down to &ldquo;really? Do I need to waste my precious life energy on this?&rdquo; Most emails include text from previous replies, so future messages in a thread you&rsquo;ve tagged will still contain your code, trigger your rule, and sort into high priority. That was the whole point. But now that your colleague has started sending you memes, you want to demote the conversation back down to normal.</p>
<p>Easily done! Create a tag JMQM that means &ldquo;leave this message alone.&rdquo; Change your inbox sorting rule so it only moves messages that&nbsp;<em>do</em>&nbsp;contain ZPLF, but&nbsp;<em>don&rsquo;t</em>&nbsp;contain JMQM. Voila! You can now promote and demote a conversation at will!&nbsp;</p>
<p>You can, of course, also add your ZPLF tag in the middle of a conversation, at the moment it leaps out to you as important. Then what was a normal conversation starts getting sorted as a high-priority conversation.</p>
<p>Email-address-based sorting doesn&rsquo;t handle this sort of changing midstream, so your new, brilliant email body win out! But wait, there&rsquo;s more! Email body tags have more tricks up their sleeves than a magician in the Red Light District.</p>
<h2 id="Tagsletyoudoevensneakierthings">Tags let you do even sneakier things</h2>
<p>You can use tags to do more than just sort by priority. Tagging by topic can be particularly helpful. If, like me, you&rsquo;re a Renaissance person, you can use topic tags that sort sculpture from poetry from playwriting. Or you can tag a message as involving all three! Using tags, you can easily release your inner polymath! (A polymath is a master of many disciplines! This is different from polyamorous, though depending on the circumstances, &ldquo;master&rdquo; and &ldquo;discipline&rdquo; might still apply.)</p>
<p>Speaking of multi-party partnerships, email tags enable a trick that can help those run smoothly. Imagine you&rsquo;re emailing a client back and forth about the design of a website. You want your designer in on the content of these emails, so they know the client&rsquo;s opinion of the site. You also want your client to speak freely&rsquo; so you&rsquo;d like the thread to seem to be between just them and you (no designer on the TO: line). Rather than forwarding everything to the designer by hand, you can tag them in the email body, and set up a rule based on that to pass them each message in the exchange. This essentially includes a BCC in an email thread, where both your messages&nbsp;<em>and</em>&nbsp;your client&rsquo;s messages get BCC&rsquo;d, through the clever use of a tag.</p>
<p>Sorting email is a pain. Use tags to make your email program do it for you. Make your tags invisible to keep your contacts from coopting them. Add or drop tags if a thread changes priority. And step up your email game with special tags for special tricks. Leave those extra addresses for the secret basement servers&mdash;the key to mastering your inbox was in the email body all along.</p>
<p>I&#39;m Stever Robbins. I run programs to help people have Extraordinary Lives and extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://steverrobbins.com/" target="_blank">SteverRobbins.com</a>&nbsp;. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!</p>Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:30:52 -0500Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:30:52 -0500http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/email/manage-your-priority-emails-with-this-simple-tagging-tipHow to Simplify Your Life with Custom URLshttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/tech/web/how-to-simplify-your-life-with-custom-urls
<p>We&rsquo;re living in the future! And here in the future, we sign up for online services and social media sites. Those services give us convenient, easy-to-use links for us to get back to them.<img alt="How to Simplify Your Life with Custom URLs" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="299" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8764/shortcuts.jpg?itok=Zo3KuH4I" width="448" /></p>
<p>For instance, you might sign up as a bookstore affiliate. When your friend wants you to send them a link to that great book you&rsquo;re reading (&ldquo;Hairy Potter and the Kiln of Doom&rdquo;), you want to grab an affiliate link and send it over in a text message. You visit the Amazing Online Bookstore and it gives you a special affiliate link to send your friend. Something simple, and easy to remember and type: http://www.amazingonlinebookstore.com/order/23423942/ordreview.php?uid=3204982&amp;opt=4&amp;affil=234&amp;creative=15&amp;spork=utensil . Just type that right into a text message and you&rsquo;re good to go!</p>
<p>Grandma Cuddles is in a tizzy. Intern MG has been working for her a couple days a week and has been doing a bang-up job. He&rsquo;s automated the business beyond what anyone thought possible. Now&nbsp;<em>Grandma Cuddles Day Care</em>&nbsp;uses web-based systems for pretty much everything. There&rsquo;s just one tiny problem &hellip; Cuddles has to access her sites from a dozen different devices throughout the Center.&nbsp;Not everything is bookmarked everywhere, and she doesn&rsquo;t know the web addresses by heart.</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-left">It&#39;s trivial to change web providers; keep the same shortcut and just change where it goes!</p>
<p>And when talking on the phone to parents who are eager to rid themselves of their crying, screeching offspring, she needs to be able to give the parents directions to the online services MG set up that handle scheduling, payment, inventory, life insurance policies, and so on. All those links are impossible to remember, and equally impossible to read over the phone.</p>
<p>While he was here, he knew all the links by heart (of course, he has a perfect photographic memory), and would talk customers through connecting to the right page. Sadly, MG isn&rsquo;t around to take the calls this semester. He&rsquo;s taking a foreign semester abroad. He&rsquo;s living in a castle in the Netherlands. Yes, a castle. (I never got to live in a castle when I was a student. But I guess MG is just special. I had to walk uphill to school both ways. Builds character. Too bad MG won&rsquo;t get to build character. Ha ha joking.&nbsp;<em>not really</em>) Without him around, Grandma Cuddles is at her wit&rsquo;s end.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the answer to her problems is just a few keystrokes away.</p>
<h2 id="CreateshortcutsforlongURLs">Create Shortcuts for Long URLs</h2>
<p>When you have complicated URLs, you need to remember: use a URL shortener. A URL shortener lets you enter a long, complicated URL and it gives you back a short, simple one that you can type into a browser and it will redirect you to the same place as the original link.&nbsp;</p>
<p>You can take your Amazing Bookstore Affiliate link, run it through a shortener, and get a really tiny URL that you can give to a friend, something like&nbsp;<a href="http://tinyurl.com/getitdoneguy">http://tinyurl.com/getitdoneguy</a>, a tiny link that will redirect you to the Amazon page for my book. Only the TinyUrl is easier to remember.</p>
<p>There are a lot of link shorteners, but I believe that TinyUrl.com was the very first. And it&rsquo;s free. And it doesn&rsquo;t require an account. And it doesn&rsquo;t have a monthly service charge.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Grandma Cuddles can simply create a TinyUrl http://tinyurl.com/cuddlescalendar, which magically redirects to the magical link that her third-party scheduling platform gave her for scheduling the daycare&rsquo;s medical intake appointments.&nbsp;</p>
<p>She starts all her short URLs start with the word &ldquo;cuddles&rdquo; to distinguish them from abbreviations someone else may have created containing the word &ldquo;calendar.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Create Shortcuts on Your Site</h2>
<p>Of course, rather than relying on a 3rd party service, if you have your own web site you can have your web site do the redirects. Grandma Cuddles has her own web site, she can simply have http://grandmacuddles.com/calendar redirect straight to her calendar program.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now she can just tell people over the phone, &ldquo;To schedule a full examination of your adorable little tot to assess whether they have what it takes to survive and thrive in the Grandma Cuddles happy fun play rooms, just go to grandmacuddles.com/calendar and book yourself an appointment. Easy for Grandma to remember, easy to say by phone, and easy for desperate parents to type into a web browser.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Use Your Shortcuts for All Kinds of Services</h2>
<p>Shortcuts come in handy everywhere you use a third-party system. The Day Care center uses an online inventory system to keep track of craft materials like ropes, facilities supplies like zip ties and clamps, and of course, storage containers like handy dandy 55-gallon drums. Grandma Cuddles swears by them. She says you can never have too many 55-gallon drums.</p>
<p>By creating the handy-dandy shortcut http://grandmacuddles.com/inventory, she can get to her inventory supplies any time she needs them.</p>
<p>You can also use shortcuts for any online service that gives you a custom URL:</p>
<ul>
<li>Any online payment page for people to send you money. Grandmacuddles.com/pay takes you right to Grandma&rsquo;s send-me-money page.</li>
<li>Video conferencing services. At least once a month, Grandma holds her famous &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Spare the Rod&rdquo; parenting webinar. She never remembers the long, complicated webinar URL. She shortened it to GrandmaCuddles.com/webinar. Now she can always go straight there. Effortlessly!</li>
<li>Secure messages. Grandma likes parents to be able to send her confidential messages, because even the walls have ears. She has an upload page at Hushmail.com where parents can communicate without fear prying eyes. Grandmacuddles.com/private takes her&mdash;and everyone else&mdash;right to her upload form.</li>
<li>Shared folders and files. Sharing services like DropBox and Google Drive let you share files and folders, but have absurdly long, impossible-to-remember URLs. If you use the same shared file for your weekly team agenda minutes, just create a redirect.</li>
<li>Control panels. Any time a service gives you a website control panel, use a redirect to make it quick to find. Even though it&rsquo;s possible to navigate to her ISP&rsquo;s domain name control panel through the interface, Grandma Cuddles has a shortcut: GrandmaCuddles.com/domaincontrol takes her right to her control panel, easy-peasy.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="Redirectshortcutswhenyourserviceschange">Redirect Shortcuts When Your Services Change</h2>
<p>The other advantage of using shortcuts that you host on your own site is that you can keep the same shortcut and change where it goes. If today, Grandma uses Giggles Calender, then GrandmaCuddles.com/calendar can go to her Giggles Calendar page. But if later she decides to use a grownup calendar, like Lookout Calendar, she can change GrandmaCuddles.com/calendar to go to Lookout Calendar, and voila, she&rsquo;s charged services and everyone&rsquo;s bookmarks and memory still works. No need for anyone to need the Lookout Calendar URL.</p>
<h2 id="Learnhowtosetupyourownredirects">Learn How to Set Up Your Own Redirects</h2>
<p>It&rsquo;s too complicated to explain in a podcast, but if you have your own web site, I&rsquo;ve published instructions for several different ways you can create your own redirect pages. Just visit&nbsp;<a href="http://getitdoneguy.com/redirect" target="_blank">http://getitdoneguy.com/redirect</a>&nbsp;for details. And yes, that, itself, is a redirect page!</p>
<p>This is Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I run programs to help people have Extraordinary Lives and extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://steverrobbins.com/" target="_blank">http://SteverRobbins.com</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!</p>Tue, 25 Oct 2016 01:39:36 -0400Tue, 25 Oct 2016 01:39:36 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/tech/web/how-to-simplify-your-life-with-custom-urlsHow to Perfectly Clean Your Glasses with No Streakshttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/housekeeping/cleaning/how-to-perfectly-clean-your-glasses-with-no-streaks
<h2><img alt="How to Perfectly Clean Your Glasses with No Streaks, Even Without a Cloth" class="image-insert_medium" height="408" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8685/clean_glasses.jpg?itok=zYj0P3cZ" width="448" /></h2>
<h2>Rinse Them in the Sink</h2>
<p>Many new glasses owners don&rsquo;t realize this, but one of the easiest ways to clean your glasses is to simply stick them under the kitchen faucet! Then thoroughly dry them with your usual glasses cloth or even a paper towel or tissue. The water will rinse away dirt and oils and your lens will be clear again.</p>
<h2>The Secret to Streak-Free Lenses</h2>
<p>If you always seem to have a streak you can&rsquo;t get off your lenses, you&rsquo;ll love this trick: When you wipe your glasses, wipe up-and-down on one side, and side-to-side on the other. That way, if there&rsquo;s still a streak left, you&rsquo;ll know which side of the lens it&rsquo;s on.</p>
<h2>Use a Coffee Filter</h2>
<p>Glasses are harder to clean than you&rsquo;d think, thanks to easy streaks and oil built up from being on your face all the time. Meanwhile, cloths and tissues can leave tiny pieces of fuzz. Our favorite item to polish glasses with? A coffee filter. It&rsquo;s soft enough for your lenses and won&rsquo;t leave behind lint.</p>
<h2>Defogging Glasses</h2>
<p>Do you know what household item will cause eyeglasses or mirrors to stop fogging? Shaving cream! It&rsquo;s weird but true: just rub the glass with cream, leave on for a couple of minutes, then rub off for a fog-free finish.</p>
<h2>Impromptu Glasses Cleaner</h2>
<p>Don&rsquo;t use the corner of your shirt, which is probably covered in dirt and oil anyway. The next time you&rsquo;re digging through your pockets looking for a cloth you can clean your glasses with, try a dollar bill. Press hard and it will do the job of a glasses cloth in a pinch.</p>
<h2>How to Wash the Arms of Your Glasses</h2>
<p>Usually washing the arms of your glasses is as easy as water and a cloth, but if you&rsquo;ve gotten hairspray on your eyeglasses, it can be much harder. The trick? Just wipe them down with rubbing alcohol and they&rsquo;ll be clean again. (Don&rsquo;t use alcohol directly on the lenses, as it can harm their protective film.)</p>
<h2>Don&rsquo;t Use Vinegar</h2>
<p>One final note: Although we usually recommend you <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/diy/a-gajillion-uses-for-vinegar" target="_blank">use vinegar for everything</a>, vinegar can harm the coating that comes on many glasses these days. Just this once, keep the vinegar in the cabinet!</p>
<p><strong>For more cleaning tips for around the house, check out our </strong><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/whoknewtips/cleaning-tips/" target="_blank"><strong>Cleaning Tips</strong></a><strong> board on Pinterest.&nbsp;</strong><strong>And don&rsquo;t forget to sign up for our </strong><a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/who-knew-newsletter" target="_blank"><strong>newsletter</strong></a><strong> and follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/whoknewtips" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a><strong> and </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/whoknewtips/" target="_blank"><strong>Instagram</strong></a><strong>!</strong></p>
<p><em>Image courtesy of&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.shutterstock.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1474915589324000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGjmcK-m4HOF2oV693ZPp0e9IRydg" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/" target="_blank">Shutterstock.</a></em></p>Mon, 26 Sep 2016 15:05:02 -0400Mon, 26 Sep 2016 15:05:02 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/housekeeping/cleaning/how-to-perfectly-clean-your-glasses-with-no-streaks7 Tips to Make the Most of Your Visits to the Doctorhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/medical-conditions/7-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-visits-to-the-doctor
<p><img alt="doctor and patient" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="237" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/7152/doctorpatient.jpg?itok=zND_wGb5" width="448" />When I hear an occasional patient complaint in regards to another doctor&mdash;as someone who understands both the patient&#39;s and the doctor&rsquo;s perspective&mdash;I am honestly confident to say that it&rsquo;s more often than not (like every episode of &quot;Three&#39;s Company&quot;) due to a simple misunderstanding. Really. Not so unlike Jack, Janet, and Chrissy&#39;s relationship mishaps, it&#39;s so easy for misunderstandings to occur in the clinical setting&mdash;it&#39;s a complex world, dealing with insurance, numerous office staff, a fast-paced schedule, rather intimidating medical terminology, unwanted diagnoses, and much more.</p>
<p><em>&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t listen to what I was trying to tell him.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p><em>&ldquo;She was in and out in less than 5 minutes.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p><em>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t understand what I was supposed to do by the end of the visit.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p><em>&ldquo;She used words I really just didn&rsquo;t understand.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>I sadly hear these pleas of help all too often. But when it gets down to the bottom line, doctors do simply want the best for their patients&mdash;but perhaps they may not realize that patients need more explanation and more medical jargon translation. And patients may not realize that doctors run a very tight schedule and need to thrive on efficiency to make it through the day. These two sides may clash on occasion, Regal Beagle style. I&rsquo;ve discussed some of these issues in my previous podcasts, and a few have gone officially &quot;viral&quot; on the internet, perhaps due to some of the common-ground controversy that patients and doctors share:</p>
<p><a href="/node/6769">Why is My Doctor Always Late?</a></p>
<p><a href="/node/6810">Why Can&#39;t My Doctor Spend More Time With Me?</a></p>
<p><a href="/node/6818">How to Spend Less Time Waiting for the Doctor</a></p>
<p>Although not every doctor-patient relationship will be perfect (just like any other relationship), I can suggest some tips for patients to make the most of your doctors&rsquo; visits.&nbsp;</p>
<h2><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-left" height="673" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_large/public/images/7152/Doctor_Visits.jpg?itok=1e3I7e9l" width="304" /><strong>7 Tips to Take Charge of Your Doctors&rsquo; Visits</strong></h2>
<p>Like every relationship, it takes some compromise and hard work to create a solid foundation. And if you find a doctor that you deem worthy enough to form a relationship with, then here are some suggestions on how you can take charge of your relationship and office visits:</p>
<p>1. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Reveal your baggage</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Bring your medication bottles</em>. &nbsp;If you don&rsquo;t have your medication list memorized, please bring all of your bottles with you to every visit. I cannot stress the importance of this step enough. Your doctor may have an electronic list of your medications, but if you&rsquo;ve made changes with the specialist or have stopped/started a new drug that she doesn&rsquo;t know about, there&rsquo;s a great chance for mishaps and medical error. So, unless you are on top of all the medications you are taking, the dosages, how many times a day, and are aware exactly what you are prescribed a medication for, it is extremely wise to bring all your bottles to your visits.&nbsp; Also, if your doctor wants to make changes to your medications, they can simply point out the bottle that requires alterations.</p>
<p>2. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Prepare for your dates</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Bring a written list of questions</em>. &nbsp;If you have more than 1-2 non-related medical issues (like for example. &ldquo;I want to discuss my blood pressures,&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m having back pain,&rdquo; and &ldquo;I need a work excuse note for today&rdquo;), write them down and show them not only the nurse who measures your vital signs and escorts you to the exam room, but also to your doctor at the very beginning of your visit. This way, even if she cannot address every single issue on your list, she can get an idea for what is going on in your health and how to best use the time you have together for the visit.&nbsp;</p>
<p>3. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Don&rsquo;t stand them up</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Be on time for your appointments.&nbsp;</em>Before your visit, ask the office when the most ideal time to arrive for your visit is&mdash;that is, is it 5 minutes or 15 minutes before? Will there be paperwork to complete before the visit? If the doctor is running late, how can you best learn so before the visit that day? Patients that do run late ultimately may delay other appointments for both the doctor and patients that day, as in a domino effect.&nbsp;</p>
<p>4. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Keep a relationship diary</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Bring paper and pen.</em>&nbsp;Take notes during your visit with the doctor. Write down when they want you to go to the lab the next time. Jot down their instructions for how to increase your medication dose or when to call if you are not better. Make certain you understand what the &quot;plan&quot; for your ailment really is.&nbsp;Write down any words you may not understand because your doctor may take for granted some medical jargon that is not so easy to understand for others. &nbsp;</p>
<p>5. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Communicate</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Don&rsquo;t be afraid to ask questions.</em>&nbsp; If you don&rsquo;t understand a medical term, don&rsquo;t be afraid to ask your doctor to elaborate.&nbsp; When your doctor tells you that you have &ldquo;microalbuminuria,&rdquo; it may seem intuitive to him, but unless you speak up and ask what that is, it may not even occur to him that not everyone understands what that intimidating term truly means.&nbsp;Doctors are not all excellent teachers, unfortunately, and may simply forget that not everyone understands what they are trying to say.</p>
<p>6. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Find out when you should &ldquo;call&rdquo;</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Discuss follow up instructions</em>. Even though it may not be wise in your other relationships to ask this question, it&#39;s super smart to ask this of your doctor. By the end of your visit, ask your doctor when to schedule (if needed) any follow-up visits. When should you see your doctor again? No, I don&#39;t mean at the next golfing match (please, that&#39;s so cliché). &nbsp;That is, when should this next follow-up visit ideally occur, or is it even necessary? &nbsp;</p>
<p>7. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<strong><u>Reflect on your encounter</u></strong>:&nbsp;<em>Read and study your &ldquo;clinical summary.&rdquo;</em>&nbsp; Most doctors&rsquo; offices with electronic health records now dispense a printout of your &ldquo;clinical summary&rdquo; at the very end of your visit. This is a medical summary of your entire visit&mdash;please review this in detail. Sometimes, doctors write patient instructions on this summary, so make sure you understand which section includes notes from your doctor. The summary often also includes your vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, weight, etc), in addition to your diagnoses and prescriptions. Make certain that you understand everything on this summary, and if you don&rsquo;t, ask.</p>
<p>OK, OK. So, given my above tips, it&#39;s obvious that I&#39;m not a dating expert. Either that, or perhaps it&#39;s simply that your relationship with your doctor may not be the most&nbsp;<em>typical</em>&nbsp;relationship. But my goal is really to inspire your visits to run more smoothly and ultimately help you take charge of your health.</p>
<p>With all that being said...</p>
<p class="qdt-photo-caption-text">Come and knock on our (office) door,</p>
<p class="qdt-photo-caption-text">We&#39;ve been waiting for you.</p>
<p>Share your ideas and learn more Quick and Dirty Tips with us on the House Call Doctor&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.facebook.com/HouseCallDr">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/housecalldoc">Twitter</a>&nbsp;pages. You can even find me on <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/majdmd/">Pinterest</a>!</p>
<div>
<p class="qdt-bio-text"><em>Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only.&nbsp; This content does not substitute any medical advice, and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider. Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all health related questions and issues.</em></p>
</div>
<p><em><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-221885875/stock-photo-asian-physician-explaining-new-prescription-to-black-patient.html?src=r_dLxJWYIEyytqn4BZFzyw-1-23">Doctor patient </a>image courtesy of Shutterstock.</em></p>Thu, 22 Sep 2016 01:20:51 -0400Thu, 22 Sep 2016 01:20:51 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/medical-conditions/7-tips-to-make-the-most-of-your-visits-to-the-doctorWhen Should You Share a Coworker&#039;s Personal News?http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/relationships/etiquette-manners/when-should-you-share-a-coworkers-personal-news
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-left" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8673/shutterstock_461839342.jpg?itok=8fExvLBo" />Recently, I received an email from a <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mannersqdt">Modern Manners Guy Twitter</a> follower named Craig, about having whether or not to share <em>personal news</em> about a coworker with his colleagues. Now, before you think that Craig&rsquo;s &ldquo;personal news&rdquo; was rudely gossiping about a failed relationship or poking fun about said colleague who &ldquo;may have&rdquo; had plastic surgery, it was the complete opposite. Craig was thinking from the heart when his coworker Alice lost her mother and was absent from work for two weeks. Being closer with Alice than anyone else in the office, Craig new about her mother&rsquo;s illness for a while yet never made it known since it wasn&rsquo;t his job to do. But when her mother passed, Craig was torn about whether to tell people himself, or let Alice address it (if she chose to). He asked me what you do in this situation, and having been in his shoes before, I was able to empathize with his dilemma.</p>
<p>I found this to be an interesting and good topic since it&rsquo;s bound to happen in any office. As well, it&rsquo;s a topic that honestly, I&#39;m on the fence about. I mean, one part says, &ldquo;Yes, everyone will want to know and send their regards,&rdquo; while the other side of argues, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a private issue that should say that way unless Alice brings it up.&rdquo; However, having been through this, I learned to lean towards letting your colleagues know <em>something </em>rather than nothing. For starters, when someone goes missing for a while, people start to ask questions. Having no answers or the manager saying, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about it,&rdquo; only makes the situation stranger. Secondly, the reason you&nbsp;<em>should</em>&nbsp;tell your colleagues is about your family <em>in </em>the office. &nbsp;I don&rsquo;t care what type of office you work in, or how cutthroat it may be, but your colleagues are an extended (and sometimes bizarre) type of family. &nbsp;When you spend 40+ hours a week with people day in and day out, you become close, and as Craig did, you become concerned.</p>
<p>This doesn&#39;t mean you are entitled to be hyper-involved in everyone&rsquo;s business, but it does mean that you can (and should) care.&nbsp; With that, when it&rsquo;s about the death of a family member or close friend of a colleague, something that you know is weighing on their mind, it can greatly affect their personal and professional life. Giving them space is key, and to do that, others in the office should be aware of what they&rsquo;re going through. I mean, let&rsquo;s say colleagues in the office <em>didn&rsquo;t </em>know about Alice&rsquo;s mother, and then YOU are the one that happened to dump a boatload of work her desk, or ask her rudely, &ldquo;Where have you been? I&rsquo;ve been calling and emailing you!?!?&rdquo; Talk about feeling like a jerk, right? But how could you have known?</p>
<p>With that, I recommend sharing the news&mdash;but too much.&nbsp;Just enough to know that they need some space. It&#39;s not your job to go into detail, but showing you respect your colleague&#39;s feelings, is the most proper thing to do. When there is an issue with a colleague, the formal process should always come from the top down, so lean on management to make that call.&nbsp;Be it in an email or at a small staff meeting, state that said colleague has suffered a loss, you&rsquo;ll be sending a card (which is a must) and you are respectfully giving them room/time to grieve.</p>
<p>Alright, Mannerly Nation let me know what you think of this topic, and comment below or on social media. As well, if you have another manners question, I look forward to hearing from you at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:manners@quickanddirtytips.com">manners@quickanddirtytips.com</a>. Follow me on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/mannersqdt">@MannersQDT</a>, and of course, check back next week for more Modern Manners Guy tips for a more polite life.</p>
<p><strong>Do you have any recent graduates in your circle, or perhaps someone who is looking to start a new career, check out my new book,&nbsp;</strong><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reply-all-and-other-ways-to-tank-your-career-richie-l-frieman/1114258594?ean=9781250037268"><strong><em>Reply All&hellip;And Other Ways to Tank Your Career</em></strong></a><strong>&nbsp;for great tips and advice on job success. It&#39;s available now!</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-461839342/stock-photo-young-businessman-stressed-jobsheadaches-about-the-job-on-tableangry-boss-pointing-on-mistakes-at-officevintage-style.html?src=oGS3dy0xTrVCgJLvyAQs5A-1-8"><em>Photo courtesy of Shutterstock</em></a></p>Tue, 20 Sep 2016 14:05:02 -0400Tue, 20 Sep 2016 14:05:02 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/relationships/etiquette-manners/when-should-you-share-a-coworkers-personal-newsHow to Memorize Quicklyhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/learning/how-to-memorize-quickly
<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<img alt="" class="image-insert_medium" height="448" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/2151/strong-brain-lifting-weight.jpg?itok=3YAVXcgx" width="448" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 16px;">Memorizing is hard, but we often need to do it, whether it&rsquo;s for <a href="/node/1267">presentations</a>, or concepts we&rsquo;ll need to refer to, or that 20-minute <a href="/node/2159">wedding toast</a> that everyone will remember. And nothing teaches you how to memorize words, movement, or song like musical theater. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 16px;">Earlier this year, I played a dancing tree in </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">Evil Dead: The Musical.</i><span style="font-size: 16px;"> It&rsquo;s easy to play a dancing tree. You just stand around with a goofy, tree-like grin, and wave your branches. Finding your motivation? It&rsquo;s easy. Just remember the party you had the night you reached drinking age. (Or don&rsquo;t remember, as the case may be.) Now, I&rsquo;ve been cast as Nathan Detroit in </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">Guys and Dolls.</i><span style="font-size: 16px;"> It&rsquo;s my first speaking part, and it&rsquo;s a doozy. I have dozens of pages of dialogue to remember.</span></p>
<h2>How to Memorize Quickly</h2>
<p>My first instinct was to open page 1 and start reading. Then go back and re-read. And re-re-read, each time going a little further into the script. Eventually, I would know the whole script because I&rsquo;d read it a gazillion times. Unfortunately, that didn&rsquo;t work. And it was boring! By the time I&rsquo;d memorized half the scene, I got sloppy, because going through the stuff I already knew was boring until I hit the new stuff. The new stuff, the interesting stuff, was always at the end.</p>
<p>Then I remembered what my mother used to tell me. She said, &ldquo;Stever, always have your meals backwards. Eat dessert first. It&rsquo;s the best part! And if you&rsquo;re vaporized by an invading space army&rsquo;s laser beam weapons halfway through dinner, at least you&rsquo;ll have eaten the best part.&rdquo; Is it possible that Mom&rsquo;s advice would work here, too? Much to my surprise, the answer is yes!</p>
<h2>Memorize from the End to the Beginning</h2>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-right">For speeches, use the memorize-from-the-end technique to memorize the <i>outline</i>.</p>
<p>To memorize a long passage, I started with the last sentence: &ldquo;I feel like a heel.&rdquo; I repeated that until I could do it from memory. Then I added the sentence before it. &ldquo;You are a good man, and I know you will take good care of Adelaide.&rdquo; I rehearsed, &ldquo;You are a good man, and I know you will take good care of Adelaide. I feel like a heel.&rdquo; But that was too big a chunk to add at once. So first I added just &ldquo;And I know you will take good care of Adelaide&rdquo; before &ldquo;I feel like a heel.&rdquo; Then I added &ldquo;You are a good man&rdquo; to the front of that. I kept adding to the beginning until the entire passage was memorized.</p>
<p>For reasons I don&rsquo;t completely understand, it was a lot easier. The hard part was up front, and as soon as I got through the new piece, saying the part at the end, which I&rsquo;d already memorized, just reinforced it.</p>
<h2>Memorize the Prompts and Cues!</h2>
<p>I was so happy-go-lucky with my newly memorized paragraph that I decided whenever I wanted to be center stage, I&rsquo;d just trot out my paragraph and say it proud and clear. Then the <a href="http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/accepting-criticism-and-feedback-gracefully.aspx" target="_blank">director informed me</a> that I&rsquo;m only supposed to say it once, and it has to be at a certain point in the play. Talk about a buzzkill!</p>
<p>If you&rsquo;re memorizing a response to something&mdash;say, a toast you need to give at a certain point in a wedding ceremony&mdash;keep working backwards until you&rsquo;re memorizing not only your part, but the cue line or event that comes right before your part. That way, you&rsquo;ll know <i>when</i> to deliver your coup de grace. If you&rsquo;re memorizing dialog, rehearse the other person&rsquo;s cue line leading right into your line.</p>
<hr />
<h2>How to Memorize a Dance Quickly</h2>
<p>Even though I&rsquo;m a whiz at dialog, I&rsquo;m pathetic at dance. They say some people have two left feet. I have six. And they all move in different directions at the same time. When the memorize-from-the-end-forward trick worked so well with dialog, I tried it with dance. Much to my delight, it seems to work with dance, too.</p>
<p><img alt="How to Memorize Quickly" class="qdt-wrap-left" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/2151/man dancing.jpg?itok=EWV8so8F" />For me, at least, with dance, the transitions between the new material I&rsquo;m adding to the beginning and the old material I&rsquo;ve memorized are particularly important. Since dance is usually taught in chunks of moves (at least at the amateur level), transitioning between the chunks is when my arms are most likely to separate from my body and start doing sign language while my legs tie themselves in knots. As with the dialog, I practice the end moves, then the transition into the end moves plus the end moves themselves, then the preceding chunk, into the transition, and all the way through.</p>
<h2>How to Memorize a Speech Quickly</h2>
<p>If you&rsquo;re going to memorize from the end to memorize a speech, stop! Don&rsquo;t do it! Memorized speeches, unless you&rsquo;re a professional voiceover artist, always sound memorized. Remember first grade? &ldquo;See Jane. See Jane run. Run, Jane Run.&rdquo; You do <i>not</i> want to sound like that.</p>
<p>For speeches, use the memorize-from-the-end technique to memorize the <i>outline</i>. Then when you give the speech, you&rsquo;ll have the outline in your head and <a href="http://publicspeaker.quickanddirtytips.com/how-improv-can-help-you-improve.aspx" target="_blank">can improvise</a> the specific words so they flow.</p>
<h2>Memorization Recap</h2>
<p>You can memorize anything from the end: dance steps, lyrics, music. Or you can be really ambitious and try all at once. Bernice is having trouble with a wilting Ficus plant. I suggested watering it. She had a better idea. She&rsquo;s designing a ritual prayer for the plant Goddess &hellip; Ethel? Her ritual includes <a href="http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/easy-multitasking.aspx" target="_blank">dance, spoken word, <i>and</i> singing</a>. All at once. While she&rsquo;s rehearsing, starting at the end and working forwards, practicing all her transitions, I&rsquo;m just going to slip a little plant food into the soil. Who&rsquo;s to say that I&rsquo;m not simply the vehicle through which Ethel will heal the Ficus.</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=JxpZS3n4HTKaCTsdmRZ3hA&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=person+dancing+isolated&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=90279274&amp;src=vwpmVCd3ytaRsuDJDfN9uA-1-19"><em>Man Dancing</em></a><em>&nbsp;image from Shutterstock</em></p>
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 23:57:10 -0400Mon, 19 Sep 2016 23:57:10 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/learning/how-to-memorize-quickly6 Ways to Motivate Your Kids During the School Yearhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/6-ways-to-motivate-your-kids-during-the-school-year
<p>As the brisk temps of fall slowly into &ldquo;back to school&rdquo; season, most of us feel both a bittersweet goodbye to summer nad an excitement toward the scheduled year ahead. But that doesn&#39;t always mean staying motivated all school year is easy.</p>
<p>Mighty Mommy shares six ways to help keep your kids motivated throughout the school year ahead and beyond.</p>
<h2><strong>1.) Become a Cheerleader</strong></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/school-age/get-the-school-year-off-to-a-great-start" target="_blank">Show enthusiasm</a> for your child&#39;s interests and encourage him to check out subjects and extracurricular subjects that really intrigue him. If he loves rock climbing and hiking, then encourage him to read about and explore places to go on a great climb. While you&rsquo;re at it, see if he can become involved in a hiking club or look up some fun, new trails on his own.&nbsp; Does your daughter love to bake? Let her take over the kitchen on a regular basis and try out new recipes. Maybe she can even do some of the family grocery shopping with you throughout the year. School is a huge part of our kid&rsquo;s lives ten months of the year, but they also need to branch out and feed their creative juices with outside interests as well. When we fuel their passions, it will not only help them to become more well-rounded individuals, but this will also help carry over into their school lives as well.</p>
<h2><strong>2.) Get Organized</strong></h2>
<p>Help your <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/housekeeping/back-to-school-organizing-projects" target="_blank">child organize her school papers </a>and assignments so she feels in control of her work. If her task seems too daunting, she&#39;ll spend more time worrying than learning. With the extremely full schedules that kids today carry thanks to after-school activities, sports, clubs, and jobs&mdash;not to mention homework loads&mdash;time-management skills are imperative for them to keep their heads above water.</p>
<p>If your school doesn&#39;t provide a homework planner, invest in one of your own. At the beginning of each school week, sit down with your child and review what was assigned. Our schools post nearly everything on the school website, so I visit that frequently if I have any questions or if one of my kids seems confused about a particular assignment.</p>
<p>Realistically, help your child figure out an estimated amount of time per subject needed each night for homework. It will take a few weeks for you and your child to have a good feel for how long assignments take, but if you know your child excels in English but struggles in math, make sure you set aside more time for the math work each night. Let your child have input with this since he or she ideally knows what comes easy and what doesn&#39;t. We have our children tackle the harder subjects first so that they can get those out of the way. We also find that they have more focus at the beginning of the night, so doing the more difficult subjects and assignments earlier in the evening reduces their stress levels.</p>
<p>Break up the workload each night by teaching your child that he or she doesn&#39;t have to work straight through when it&#39;s homework time. I love using our kitchen timer to delegate blocks of time per subject/assignment. Once the timer goes off, they take a break with a cold drink or just get up and play with the dog or throw a ball around with one another so they can burn off a little energy. <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/back-to-school/how-to-overcome-homework-battles" target="_blank">See Also: &nbsp;How to Overcome Homework Battles</a></p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>3.) Celebrate Big and Small </strong></h2>
<p>In our household of eight kids, there is never an end to starting a project or book report, studying for quizzes or mid-term exams, and trying to stay on top of dozens of assignments. With so many competing agendas, we found that it was just as important to celebrate a small task being accomplished as well as kick up our heals when a major job was completed. When we recognize the efforts our kids put in on a regular basis, they tend to stay on task and motivated to stay the course. Completing a book report calls for a special treat, such as playing an hour of his favorite video games. Or when a mid-term project is done, why not let your daughter have a couple of her best girl friends over for a sleepover? You&#39;ll offer positive reinforcement that will inspire him to keep learning and challenging himself.</p>
<h2>4.)&nbsp;<strong>Express Appreciation</strong></h2>
<p>One super easy way to keep your child motivated is to express your appreciation for having them in your life. There&#39;s nothing wrong with kids being grateful for material objects, as long as that doesn&#39;t supersede gratitude for the love and support of the people in their lives. My kids will be the first to tell you that I will comment, out of the blue, about the blessings we all have.&nbsp; When I&rsquo;m up to my eyebrows in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/housekeeping/5-laundry-room-essentials" target="_blank">laundry</a>, I&rsquo;ll say something like &ldquo;Thank goodness for my washer and dryer, I don&rsquo;t know how my ancestors washed little boy&rsquo;s pants over a rock in a stream!&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>It&#39;s like when we lose power due to a storm, that&#39;s when we start to realize how blessed we are to have electricity every day. But why wait for the storm? Get into the habit of appreciating and sharing with your kids the things that make our lives so much easier on a daily basis&mdash;especially the gift of good health and a loving family. These everyday efforts will have a ripple effect in their own daily lives, especially when it comes to succeeding in school. <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/behavior/11-ways-to-raise-grateful-kids" target="_blank">See Also: &nbsp;11 Ways to Raise Grateful Kids</a></p>
<h2><strong>5.) Don&rsquo;t Overload Your Kids</strong></h2>
<p>A common mistake parents make when it comes to extracurricular activities is worrying their children will miss out if they don&#39;t participate in everything. This tip is probably one of the most difficult for families to do&mdash;cut back on their obligations and commitments and simplify their weekly schedules by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/family-time/5-fresh-ways-to-spend-family-time-this-summer" target="_blank">eliminating one or two activities</a>&nbsp;and instead staying home. If you can even drop just one of your family&rsquo;s regular responsibilities this month, and not replace it with anything but down time, you might be inspired to slowly decrease other commitments throughout the year and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/family-time/6-ways-to-take-back-family-time" target="_blank">take back some much needed family time</a>. Less really can be more, which in turn helps your kids get that little extra edge throughout the course of the school year.</p>
<h2><strong>6.) Motivate with Positivity</strong></h2>
<p>Lack of motivation (for any of us) can be the result of not only way too much going in our world, but also being surrounded by continued pessimism. Many times being uninspired not only comes from a person or family simply doing way too much all at once and all the time, but also because of being tuned in to negative vibes, naysayers, and negative influences on social media, on the news, Internet, radio and even folks at the bus stop.</p>
<p>If this is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/family-time/10-essential-parenting-strategies-for-when-lifes-got-you-down" target="_blank">contributing to some of the chaotic moments</a>&nbsp;in your family&rsquo;s life then try and disengage from the Eeyores of the world and instead try and connect with the Pooh Bear and Piglets. And if that&rsquo;s not even possible, then stop and evaluate how you come across to your family and friends. Do you have a kind, encouraging word for others or are you a bit too critical and judgmental? When we have a positive frame of mind we tend to attract that into our lives, which in turn can result in more harmony and less friction for ourselves and our family and top-notch production in all areas of our lives will truly blossom.&nbsp;</p>
<p>How do you keep your family motivated?&nbsp; Share your thoughts in the comments section at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy">quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy</a>, post your ideas on the Mighty Mommy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MightyMommy" target="_blank">Facebook</a>&nbsp;page. or email me at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mommy@quickanddirtytips.com">mommy@quickanddirtytips.com</a>. Visit my family-friendly boards at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mightymommyqdt" target="_blank">Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT</a>.</p>
<p>Be sure to sign up for the upcoming&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/newsletters">Mighty Mommy newsletter&nbsp;</a>chock full of practical advice to make your parenting life easier and more enjoyable. &nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock.</a></em></p>Sun, 18 Sep 2016 23:47:07 -0400Sun, 18 Sep 2016 23:47:07 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/6-ways-to-motivate-your-kids-during-the-school-yearHow to Find a Lost Contact Lenshttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/how-to-find-a-lost-contact-lens
<h2><img alt="How to Find a Lost Contact" class="image-insert_medium" height="299" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8639/contacts.jpg?itok=srJcyBxD" width="448" /></h2>
<h2>What to Do If You Can&rsquo;t See</h2>
<p>For people with bad vision, the most immediate concern when you lose one of your contacts might be that you can&rsquo;t see! To make it easier, <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5868356/use-your-cell-phones-camera-to-help-find-your-glasses" target="_blank">use your phone</a>. By turning on its camera and then putting a couple of inches in front of your face, you&rsquo;ll be able to see the room around you&mdash;at least well enough to look for your missing contacts!</p>
<h2>How Find a Lost Contact Lens</h2>
<p>It sounds counterintuitive, but the best thing to do if you&rsquo;ve lost a contact is to turn out all the lights. Yes, really! Then grab a flashlight (or use your phone again) to shine the light over the area where you lost the contact. Continue in a slow sweep until you see a glint&mdash;there&rsquo;s that darned thing! The contact will reflect back the light, unlike everything else around it.</p>
<h2>Lost Contact Last Resort</h2>
<p>If you&rsquo;ve tried everything and you can&rsquo;t stand crawling around, one-eyed, any longer, there&rsquo;s an ultimate contact-finding solution you can try: Get an old nylon stocking or piece of pantyhose and secure it over the end of your vacuum hose using a rubber band. Then run your vacuum where you think you lost the contact. The power of the vacuum will suck it up, but the lens will stick to the stocking.</p>
<p><strong>For more solutions to everyday problems, check out our <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/whoknewtips/lifehacks-everyday-problems-solved/" target="_blank">Lifehacks: Everyday Problems, Solved!</a> Board on Pinterest.&nbsp;</strong><strong>And don&rsquo;t forget to sign up for our </strong><a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/who-knew-newsletter" target="_blank"><strong>newsletter</strong></a><strong> and follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/whoknewtips" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a><strong> and </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/whoknewtips/" target="_blank"><strong>Instagram</strong></a><strong>!</strong></p>
<p><em>Image courtesy of&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.shutterstock.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1473703785373000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFDG8EjoKc1ZEOp7IK_Gvw3_vwN5Q" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/" target="_blank">Shutterstock.</a></em></p>Thu, 15 Sep 2016 11:05:01 -0400Thu, 15 Sep 2016 11:05:01 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/how-to-find-a-lost-contact-lensHow to Use Madlibs to Streamline Micromanagementhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/project-management/how-to-use-madlibs-to-streamline-micromanagement
<p>Today&rsquo;s topic is learning to micromanage your team, using only a few minutes each day. (Perfect for micromanaging when you&rsquo;re traveling!)<img alt="madlibs to streamline micromanagement" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="224" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/8570/shutterstock_157785530.jpg?itok=AYZ-FFxP" width="224" /></p>
<p>Bernice, the owner of the Green Growing Things plant shop, has declared that the Goddess wants her to travel to Sedona to learn psychic energy-based cactus growing techniques from an ancient sect of energy healers. Unfortunately, her employees&mdash;despite being a political mastermind, an android wunderkind, and her IT-geek fiance&mdash;can&rsquo;t seem to run the shop right without her. She loves them dearly, but let&rsquo;s face it: she wants to spend her time focusing on her chakras, not hand holding her crew back home. They often need micromanagement, but that takes so much time. Luckily, she can get the benefits of micromanagement without the slow-down by using rapid-fire Madlib meetings.</p>
<h2 id="changeupyourcheck-ins">Change Up Your Check-ins</h2>
<p>Remember Madlibs? Madlibs is a game where you play fill-in-the-blank. You have a sentence like &ldquo;The&nbsp;<em>(profession)</em>___ went to the store.&rdquo; You ask your friends to yell out a profession. They say, &ldquo;baker.&rdquo; You plug it in an read the resulting sentence, &ldquo;The baker went to the store.&rdquo; Hilarious!!!</p>
<p>You can use Madlibs for much more serious endeavors. Use Madlibs to do daily micromanagement check-ins. To get started, set up daily 5-minute team meetings at the start of each day. Work with your team members to design a Madlib for each that relates to the work they should be doing on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Melvin, for example, might start his with a status update on the Green Growing Things harvest. &ldquo;Yesterday I harvested (blank) rows of (blank), and fed the (blank).&rdquo; The Madlib might also touch on goals for today. So he might add &ldquo;today I intend to harvest (blank) rows of (blank).&rdquo; This Madlib neatly gives Melvin a way to measure harvesting progress on a daily basis. Europa, whose current project is taking inventory of all the herbs and spices, might say &ldquo;Yesterday, I continued the inventory up through (name of a spice).&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>In your daily meeting, go around the circle and have each person fill in the blanks on their Madlibs. Call each employee&rsquo;s name and have them share their filled in Madlib. Melvin would say, &ldquo;Yesterday I harvested 3 rows of petunias and fed the Albanian Paisley Orchid hybrids. Today I intend to harvest 6 rows of carnations.&rdquo; The structure of the Madlib puts his attention directly on the measure of what he should be doing.</p>
<h2 id="addrequestsforhelp">Add Requests for Help</h2>
<p>The Madlib can do more than just put attention on measurements. Add the phrase &ldquo;Today I need help on (blank)&rdquo; to the end of each person&rsquo;s sentence. Now they have a built-in way to ask the rest of the team for help. Quickly. Europa might say &ldquo;Yesterday, I continued inventory up through parsley. Today I need help with inventorying the ragweek because I&rsquo;m aller&hellip; I&rsquo;m aller&hellip; I&rsquo;m ALLERGIC! <em>Achoo!</em>&rdquo;</p>
<p>Once everyone has given their micro-status, give everyone a chance to respond to any requests for help that came up during the check-in. Notice that it&rsquo;s taken about 15 seconds per person to check in with everyone. Bask in the wonderfulness of Madlibs!</p>
<p>Micromanagement now becomes as simple as designing Madlibs that get each team member to focus on the micro-details they should be paying attention to.</p>
<hr />
<p>Bernice can now call in for a mere five minutes a day to run Madlibs with her team. First is Melvin, &ldquo;Yesterday, I planted 8 rows of snapdragons, and fed the clover fields. Today I need help to harvest some honey.&rdquo; Thomas chimes in that he speaks honeybee and can help with that. In about 20 seconds of meeting, Bernice knows Melvin&rsquo;s on top of the harvest (surprising, since he&rsquo;s usually more of a tech person), and that his honeybee problem is under control. In mere minutes, she hears from the rest of the team, and she can go commune with the cacti secure in the knowledge that the shop might survive without her.</p>
<h2 id="sharewiththegroup">Share with the Group</h2>
<p>Making your Madlib meetings public also helps your employees manage themselves. Speaking publicly brings out something that one-on-one meeting can&rsquo;t: that dark but powerful force called peer pressure. Europa doesn&rsquo;t want to say &ldquo;I finished the inventory up to ragweed&rdquo; two days in a row, especially when everyone else is reporting great progress. So she&rsquo;s more likely to keep her own laziness in check and keep moving.</p>
<p>Public meetings also help people get immediate help on the things they need. In a private meeting, Melvin would have had to tell Bernice that he needed honeybee help. She would have gone out to the group to ask, and come back again, adding needless delay. He might have ended up stalled, worse, he may been tempted to skip that step altogether. With a public Madlib meeting, that&rsquo;s not an issue.</p>
<p>Also, there&rsquo;s a convenient little psychological principle that say if you share your goals in public, you&rsquo;re more likely to keep them. When Melvin declares &ldquo;I intend to plant 15 rows of beats today,&rdquo; she won&rsquo;t be caught dead next meeting saying &ldquo;yesterday I planted two rows of beats.&rdquo; The three Ps&mdash;pride, peer pressure, and psychology&mdash;will keep her happily harvesting. That is, if she&rsquo;s made her public Madlib declaration.</p>
<h2 id="sticktotheplan">Stick to the Plan</h2>
<p>The Madlibs format also helps you deal with those rogue mavericks who want to shake up your operation. On Bernice&rsquo;s third day communing with the cacti, Europa&rsquo;s report breaks format. &ldquo;Yesterday I decided to investigate the feasibility of breeding a new strain of Audrey IIIs.&rdquo; Her Madlib on inventory seems to have vanished completely.</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-left"><span>Micromanagement now becomes as simple as designing Madlibs that get each team member to focus on the micro-details they should be paying attention to.</span></p>
<p>Instantly, Bernice knows that Europa is off track with her inventory. Maybe the new Audrey IIIs are a good idea, but maybe they aren&rsquo;t. Bernice simply says to Europa, &ldquo;Please fill in your inventory Madlib for today&rsquo;s check-in, and we can discuss the Audrey IIIs off-line.&rdquo; If Europa doesn&rsquo;t want to do more inventory, she&rsquo;d be refusing in front of the entire team. Not likely. So like it or not, she&rsquo;s forced to refocus her efforts on inventory, until she and Bernice work out a new Madlib that reflects her changed responsibilities.</p>
<p>When Bernice returns home&mdash;wearing a tie-dye bandana, and carrying bags full of her new &ldquo;spirit cacti&rdquo;&mdash;the shop is as healthy as ever. But that&rsquo;s no surprise. Thanks to daily Madlib meetings, she&rsquo;s been able to get the uber-controlling benefits of micro-management with only a few minutes&rsquo; investment each day.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And the team has done well. They&rsquo;ve pushed each other to work harder, by publicly committing to their tasks. They&rsquo;ve given and received help when needed. And they&rsquo;ve gotten the reality checks they needed when they strayed from the righteous garden path. So who knows? Even though she&rsquo;s back in town, Bernice might just keep those Madlibs coming. And when you need to micromanage your team, a Madlib or two might be just what you need.</p>
<p>This is Stever Robbins. Follow Get-It-Done Guy on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/getitdoneguy" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/getitdoneguy" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit<a href="http://steverrobbins.com/" target="_blank">SteverRobbins.com</a>.</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!</p>Tue, 06 Sep 2016 00:30:09 -0400Tue, 06 Sep 2016 00:30:09 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/project-management/how-to-use-madlibs-to-streamline-micromanagement6 Tips to Help Your Child Get Good Gradeshttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/learning/6-tips-to-help-your-child-get-good-grades
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="309" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8576/homework.jpg?itok=cCuWdOno" width="448" />A brand new school year offers endless opportunities for students to sharpen their #2 pencils and start fresh. There may be a new social scene, a host of different teachers, clubs, and sports to investigate, and the opportunity to really enjoy learning, which ultimately results in good grades.</p>
<p>Even if your student did not excel during the previous school year, fear not, Mighty Mommy has 6 tips to help your child get on track right from the get-go and get her best grades ever this year.</p>
<h2><strong>Tip #1: Create a Quiet Place to Study</strong></h2>
<p>Give your child a quiet place to study, free of distractions, away from TV and video games. In our house, our dining room is used as a multi-purpose study/craft room because most of our meals are enjoyed around our kitchen island.&nbsp; We always have their &quot;go-to&quot; supplies such as pencils, markers and crayons, computer paper, a stapler, construction paper, calculators, rulers, and any other study items that they use routinely on hand. This saves a lot of wasted time searching for supplies.&nbsp;Help your child&nbsp;<a href="http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1987" target="_blank">organize</a>&nbsp;her school papers and assignments so she feels in control of her work.&nbsp;If her task seems too daunting, she&#39;ll spend more time worrying than learning. Check in with her regularly to make sure she&#39;s not feeling overloaded.</p>
<p><strong>See Also:</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/school-age/organizing-tips-for-tackling-homework" target="_blank">Organizing Tips for Tackling Homework</a></p>
<h2><strong>Tip #2: After School Routines</strong></h2>
<p>The after school routine can actually be one of the trickiest parts of the day, especially when your kids become a bit older and start getting involved in numerous extracurricular activities that don&rsquo;t leave them with much homework or leisure time.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s also a bit more difficult, though certainly not impossible, to oversee a routine if you are working full time and your child goes to after school daycare or has a babysitter.</p>
<p>Depending on your children&rsquo;s ages, you will need to make sure they have time to decompress when they get home from school.&nbsp;This can include having a nutritious snack, playing with friends in the neighborhood, riding their bikes, or even watching a bit of TV.&nbsp;</p>
<p>At our home, our elementary school-aged children have a different afternoon routine than our middle school and high school kids. Regardless of whether I am home in the afternoon or they have a babysitter, the routine is the same.&nbsp;The younger kids get off the bus, come in and put backpacks and lunch boxes in their proper places, eat a snack, and have an hour or so of play time. We eat dinner at 6 PM each night, so they start homework by 5:15 PM and it&rsquo;s completed (hopefully) before dinner.</p>
<p>Our middle and high school kids usually have afterschool sports/activities so they come home right before PM, put their things away, wash up and eat dinner, and then do their daily chores, such as putting laundry away or taking out the garbage.&nbsp;Then it&rsquo;s homework time, showers, getting backpacks and outfits ready for the following day, and if there is free time after that, they can chill out with some TV or an&nbsp;<a href="http://mightymommy.quickanddirtytips.com/daily-exercise-family.aspx" target="_blank">activity</a>&nbsp;of their choice.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>Tip #3: Work with the Teachers on Problem Areas</strong></h2>
<p>If you find out that your child has specific problem areas in school, work with the teachers on these areas. Keep communication open between you and the teacher. Together you&#39;ll be able to come up with the best plans for your child. Your child&#39;s teachers may even be able to give you some advice on ways to bring up the grades and can even provide you with some teaching tools so you can provide your child with extra help at home.</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-right">If you find out that your child has specific problem areas in school, work with the teachers on these areas.&nbsp;</p>
<h2><strong>Tip #4:&nbsp;Decide on Homework Spaces</strong></h2>
<p>If your child doesn&rsquo;t have a quiet spot, such as a desk in his bedroom, to tackle homework on a nightly basis, spend some time now thinking together about where he can set up a functioning reading and work space in the house. Choose special places, like corners of rooms, or certain tables or chairs, that are dedicated solely to your kids&rsquo; most important task: schoolwork. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Organize the space in advance with the essentials, such as a good lamp, pencils, a sharpener, crayons and markers, a ruler, paper, and anything else you think he might need to start the school year off on a fresh, orderly note.&nbsp;And don&rsquo;t forget to set up a system for yourself to keep your children&rsquo;s school paperwork organized. This may include communications from the teacher, field trip slips, PTA newsletters, and other documents. My colleague the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/domestic-ceo" target="_blank">Domestic CEO</a>&nbsp;has tons of useful organizational techniques to help you manage&nbsp;<a href="http://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/tackle-paperwork-part2.aspx" target="_blank">paper clutter</a>.</p>
<h2><strong>Tip #5: Set Study Expectations</strong></h2>
<p>Though some kids are self-starters and will get their homework done without any prodding, the majority need guidance. If homework is a struggle, calmly take your child aside and let him know you want to help him succeed, and part of that means having a regular routine in place.&nbsp; Consider the location in the house where he can study without too many distractions, the time of day that he will do homework, and the availability of you, your partner, or even an older sibling to help whenever necessary.</p>
<h2><strong>Tip #6:&nbsp;Get Everything Ready the Night Before</strong></h2>
<p>This is one of those routines that will pay off for the entire family. Taking a few minutes the night before school to organize backpacks, homework, lunches, gym clothes, musical instruments, and field trip slips can add years to your life and help your student stay organized and on task for the entire school year. This small investment can prevent that stressful chaos of wondering if Tommy&rsquo;s left sneaker is actually buried in his closet or hidden in the&nbsp;<a href="http://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/tips-happy-toy-room.aspx" target="_blank">toy box</a>. Get your kids involved in the night-before organizing so they too can breathe easier when the morning rush hits.</p>
<p>What&#39;s in place at your house to help encourage good grades?</p>
<p>Share your thoughts in the comment section at&nbsp;<a href="http://quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy" sl-processed="1">quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy</a>&nbsp;or post your ideas on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MightyMommy" sl-processed="1" target="_blank">Mighty Mommy Facebook page</a>. You can also connect with me on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/mightymommy" sl-processed="1" target="_blank">Twitter @MightyMommy</a>&nbsp;or email me at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mommy@quickanddirtytips.com" sl-processed="1">mommy@quickanddirtytips.com</a>.&nbsp; Visit my family-friendly boards at&nbsp;<a href="http://pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT" sl-processed="1" target="_blank">Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT</a>.</p>
<p><em>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock.</a></em></p>Mon, 29 Aug 2016 01:21:55 -0400Mon, 29 Aug 2016 01:21:55 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/learning/6-tips-to-help-your-child-get-good-gradesThe Case Against To-Do Lists—Plus, What to Try Insteadhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/the-case-against-to-do-lists%E2%80%94plus-what-to-try-instead
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">When it comes to productivity, I&#39;m firmly against to-do lists.</span> I believe that to-do lists are distracting at best&mdash;and downright detrimental to your productivity at worst.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">To-Do Lists: The Good</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">The wonderful thing about to-do lists is that they allow you to empty your mind. By getting all those ideas floating around your head into one place, to-do lists make it easy for you to prioritize your goals and figure out what you should be working on now.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">But to-do lists have several shortcomings, too.</span><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="299" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8580/kanban.jpg?itok=dSGJNL_n" width="448" /></p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">To-Do Lists: The Bad (and The Ugly)</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">In my opinion, to-do lists have three serious shortcomings:</span></p>
<ol>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">They do not provide context.</span> </strong>&nbsp;A to-do list is nothing more than a glorified shopping list; there&#39;s no simple way to see how each item ties into each other and the bigger picture. Because of this, it&#39;s easy for your to-do lists to become highly tactical, which means you may not be working on what matters most.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">They do not allow you to visualize your work.</span> </strong>To-do lists are usually nothing more than a vertical list of text with checkboxes. Because of this layout, you&#39;re unable to visualize the flow of your work and see the bottlenecks.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">They do not let you retroactively look at your projects.</span></strong> Once you&rsquo;ve marked a task as complete, it disappears into the nether regions, never to be seen again. True, some to-do lists give you the option to view completed items, but honestly, who ever use that feature?</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Ever since I&rsquo;ve ditched the to-do list, I&rsquo;ve become much, much more productive.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">For example, I have:</span></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Increased my income eleven-fold</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Run a 50K (31 miles)</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Lived in over 15 countries over the past 8 years</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">I don&#39;t believe any of these goals would have been completed with a to-do list.</span> In order to achieve my biggest goals, I needed a system that provided context (&ldquo;Is this the most important thing I should be working on right now?&rdquo;) and helped me understand the tradeoffs of choosing one task over another. This system is called kanban.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Kanban: 10x More Productive</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Kanban (pronounced &ldquo;Kahn-Bahn&rdquo;) is Japanese for &ldquo;a card you can see and touch.&rdquo; Using a kanban system, you move cards through a board to help you visualize your workflow through different stages.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">You can create a kanban using </span><a href="https://trello.com/" target="_blank">Trello</a>, which is free. Here&rsquo;s a screenshot of a kanban in Trello:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img alt="" class="image-insert_medium" height="117" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8580/kanban-example-10xToday copy.jpg?itok=E0IiPhbk" width="448" /></p>
<p>Note there are four columns:</p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Backlog</span> (items you may or may not ever do);</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">To-Do</span> (items you will do in the future);</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Doing</span> (what you&rsquo;re doing today); and</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Done</span> (what you&rsquo;ve completed).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Each column makes it easy for you to visualize how your work flows from the backlog to completion. By visualizing our work, we instantly see what we&#39;re working on, what&rsquo;s up next, and where the bottlenecks are.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Kanban also helps you </span>minimize your work-in-progress. (These are the items in your &ldquo;Doing&rdquo; column.) For example, you could limit your work-in-progress to only three items in your &ldquo;Doing&rdquo; column at any one time; that way, you never feel overwhelmed.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">But what if another item in your &ldquo;To-Do&rdquo; column needs immediate attention? Simple. You move that task to the &ldquo;Doing&rdquo; column&mdash;but </span>only if you move one of the three current items in the &ldquo;Doing&rdquo; column back to the &ldquo;To-Do&rdquo; column. The ability to view the tradeoffs between tasks is perhaps the greatest advantage of kanban over a traditional To-Do list; it forces you to focus and not get distracted.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">What&#39;s the Trick to Actually Using Kanban?</span></h2>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Kanban will change your life&mdash;if you </span>use it. And the easiest way to use your kanban is simple: keep it in front of you.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">For example, set your kanban as your homepage. (Or post it on your wall if you&rsquo;re using Post-It notes.)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Leave that tab open, always, and review it throughout the day.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Pro tip:</span> You can also set your kanban to be your new tab in Chrome.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Here&#39;s how to do that:</span></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Install the </span><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/icpgjfneehieebagbmdbhnlpiopdcmna?hl=en" target="_blank">New Tab Redirect</a> Chrome extension.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Type chrome://extensions/ into your browser bar (where you type in URLs).</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Scroll down to the &ldquo;New Tab Redirect&rdquo; and click &ldquo;Options.&rdquo;</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Enter the URL of your kanban board.</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304"><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-left" height="176" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_small/public/images/8580/adam.JPG?itok=JzEXAbAz" width="224" />Now every time that you open a new tab in your browser, your kanban will be the first thing you see.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">Give the kanban a shot&mdash;and let me know here in the comments how it&rsquo;s working out for you!</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span id="docs-internal-guid-8dc8d0fc-c34c-7a68-8022-10e6c88a9304">---</span></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><span>Adam Costa runs </span><a href="http://www.keepinspiring.me/" target="_blank">KeepInspiring.me</a>, a blog dedicated to inspiration and motivation, and <a href="https://www.10xtoday.com/" target="_blank">10xToday.com</a>, where you can access free e-courses on how to become 10 times better at life. Adam is also the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/10x-Life-breakthrough-productive-willpower-ebook/dp/B01CKQMS7E" target="_blank">10x Life: A breakthrough system to improve focus, develop productive habits, and maximize willpower-in 5 minutes a day</a>.</em></p>
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 09:06:29 -0400Fri, 26 Aug 2016 09:06:29 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/the-case-against-to-do-lists%E2%80%94plus-what-to-try-insteadThe Simple Trick to Say &quot;No&quot; to Help-Seekers? Create Hurdleshttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/time-management/the-simple-trick-to-say-no-to-help-seekers-create-hurdles
<p>You&rsquo;re a successful person. I know, because you&rsquo;re listening to me, which all successful people do. And being amazingly talented naturally means that people often seek your help. Since you love helping others&mdash;it&rsquo;s how you pay it forward, in appreciation for those who help you from your humble beginnings&ndash;you say &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; to all those requests. And you say &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; some more. And some more. And pretty soon, you&rsquo;re buried under a gigantic pile of requests. Yes, you&rsquo;re overcommitted.<img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="299" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8567/hurdles.jpg?itok=GMVrIPZr" width="448" /></p>
<p>But giving back is important, and there&rsquo;s a way to do it without overcommitting. Develop hurdles for your help. Make it just a little bit difficult for other people to dip into your well of advice and feedback.</p>
<p>Bernice loves to help fellow plant-lovers. It&rsquo;s what she&rsquo;s been doing thanklessly for years at the Green Growing Things Shop. But now she&rsquo;s buried between questions about moss, guest bloggers who want to contribute essays on the ethics of selling carnivorous plants, and budding young entrepreneurs who want advice on how to grow their own businesses. Bernice would never, ever, stop helping people, but with this new flood of requests, she needs a way to decide who to respond to. This means finding out who&rsquo;s serious about getting help, and who just wants some face time with an expert like Bernice.</p>
<h2 data-orig-id="decidehowmuchtimeyouhavetogive." id="decidehowmuchtimeyouhavetogive">Decide How Much Time You Can Give</h2>
<p>You lead a busy life! But if you&rsquo;re going to give back, the first step is deciding how much time you have to give.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Say you set aside five hours a month to work with your followers. That could mean helping five people for one hour each. Or it could mean working closely with one person for a solid five hour block. Whichever it is, block it out on your calendar as &ldquo;giving back time.&rdquo; Not only is that explicit time to give back, but that&rsquo;s also&nbsp;<em>all</em>&nbsp;the time you&rsquo;ll use to give back. It&rsquo;s both a placeholder and an upper limit! You could even schedule a work-related meeting immediately after your giving back time to force you back into your main work.</p>
<p>Bernice chooses eight hours per month&mdash;one work day&ndash;as a good benchmark for her time. Capping her pro bono at a day insures Bernice won&rsquo;t run herself ragged each month. As much as she likes helping others, Bernice also has to run her business, encourage her employees, feed her Venus Flytraps, and moisturize the glands on her Pitcher plants.</p>
<h2 id="buildcriteriaforwhosworthyourtime">Build Criteria for Who Is Worth Your Time</h2>
<p>Now you have a limit for how much time you can spend giving help. The next step is to decide who deserves that time. After all, you&rsquo;re pretty awesome, You don&rsquo;t want to give your awesome to just anyone.&nbsp;Build criteria for who&rsquo;s worth your attention. You want to weed out anyone who doesn&rsquo;t seem serious about using your advice. Especially those vile souls who prefer to bug you with simple questions, when&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/relationships/professional/how-to-deal-with-people-who-ask-lots-of-questions" target="_blank">they could get the answer from Google</a>&nbsp;with a tap of their fingers.</p>
<hr />
<p>Choose criteria that lets you know who actually needs your time and advice. Among the requests that people have sent Bernice about gardening, there are plenty of journalists and aspiring writers who have questions about the fonts she used for the&nbsp;<em>Green Growing Things</em>&nbsp;logo. While she admits that her logo is beautiful beyond all imagining, a veritable tribute to the beauty of nature, those are questions for a graphic designer, not a gardener extraordinaire.</p>
<p>A criterion that&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;worth her time is speaking only with other plant entrepreneurs or people who have a green thumb and want gardening advice.</p>
<h2 id="applyyourcriteriabycreatinghurdlesforyourattention">Apply Your Criteria to Create Hurdles</h2>
<p>Use an online survey to screen out the people who don&rsquo;t meet your criteria. You can create one in mere minutes!</p>
<p>Design questions that test the criteria you identified. Bernice chooses questions like, &ldquo;How long have you had a passion for plants?&rdquo; and &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the most difficult plant challenge you&rsquo;re dealing with?&rdquo; People who don&rsquo;t fit her ideal giving-back profile won&rsquo;t be able to give very good answers to those questions and may self-select out of asking for Bernice&rsquo;s time.</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-left">The goal of your survey is to get people to decide they don&rsquo;t want to do the work to earn the right to some of your pro bono work.</p>
<p>By filling the survey with short-answer questions&mdash;not multiple choice or fill-in-the blanks&mdash;Bernice makes sure her people go out of their way to prove they really need her help. They should think critically about what they want from her, and provide an idea as to how she will give it to them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>You should do this, too. The goal of your survey is to get people to decide they don&rsquo;t want to do the work to earn the right to some of your pro bono work. If they aren&rsquo;t willing to take the time to fill out a survey, why should you be willing to give them your time for free? Just don&rsquo;t do it!</p>
<p>Once you have a survey constructed, when people write, asking for help or a favor, direct the sender to the online survey, and let them &ldquo;apply&rdquo; for your time.</p>
<h2 id="letthemhandleallthescheduling">Let Them Handle All the Scheduling</h2>
<p>As people make it through your obstacle course of hurdles, give them one more that will make your life easier too: have them set their own appointment.</p>
<p>Managing a tight schedule is difficult as is. But when you have this many people to help, you need to make sure you&rsquo;re spending time helping people, and not taking weeks of phone or email tag just to plan for a half-hour meetup.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I like to use the scheduling app&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scheduleonce.com/" target="_blank">ScheduleOnce.com</a>. It lets people see my availability and pencil themselves directly into my calendar.&nbsp;</p>
<p>With a service like this, you can even limit the available time blocks just to the time you&rsquo;ve blocked off for your pro bono time.</p>
<h2 id="putpeopleoffautomatically">Put People Off Automatically</h2>
<p>The other nice things about using a scheduling tool is that they can only sign up for your next free time block. If all your pro bono hours are taken this month, they are only giving options for next month. It&rsquo;s much easier to let your computer put them off than to do it yourself. If you say you can&rsquo;t meet until next month, they might beg. And when they beg, it&rsquo;s awkward. How do you tell someone nicely that, as reasonable as it may seem in the movies, it just isn&rsquo;t very impressive when they drop to their knees and lick your shoes?</p>
<p>Now, whenever somebody asks Bernice for help, all she has to do is send them the links to her survey and her online schedule. With this new system, the average message in her inbox has changed from &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s grab coffee soon&rdquo; to &ldquo;Thank you so much! I&rsquo;ve booked five minutes on your calendar six months from now, I&rsquo;m looking forward to it so much!!!&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>When you want to give back, but keep it within bounds, build hurdles. Use online surveys so you meet only with serious, determined people who can truly benefit from your advice. Use a scheduling system so people don&rsquo;t spend your time on their administrivia, and let the system enforce your availability. You get to spend your time running your life, and also give back enough to feel great.</p>
<p>This is Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://steverrobbins.com/" target="_blank">SteverRobbins.com</a>.</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!</p>Tue, 23 Aug 2016 10:30:37 -0400Tue, 23 Aug 2016 10:30:37 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/time-management/the-simple-trick-to-say-no-to-help-seekers-create-hurdlesHow to Tame Your Email Inbox with a Pencil and Paperhttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/email/how-to-tame-your-email-inbox-with-a-pencil-and-paper
<p><img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="448" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8547/email.jpg?itok=AM-uNXEZ" width="448" />Are you an email slave? I know I was. I would sit down at my computer, open my inbox, and BAM! My next several hours would be spent taking care of all the incoming messages. I&rsquo;d try to read and reply to every single one, which means, if you think about it, that I was being a slave to whoever happened to send an email, fulfilling their requests about whatever <em>they</em> thought was important. My own priorities? Invisible. After all, I was the only one who wasn&rsquo;t emailing to demand my attention.</p>
<p>It gets worse. The more someone emails you, the more time you&rsquo;ll spend replying to that person. Even if they&rsquo;re not the most important person emailing you. Your prompt response just reinforces their tendency to email you more. Great. Just what you need. A brand new dependent. Yippee.</p>
<p>Someone who is very courteous, and very important, and only emails you once with a carefully thought-out email, might even fall through the cracks. You need a way to prioritize the important stuff, even if it&rsquo;s infrequent, and untangle yourself from the people who use you as a dumping ground for their own work.</p>
<h2><strong>Don&rsquo;t Let the Senders Drive Your Agenda</strong></h2>
<p>So don&rsquo;t read and respond to email reflexively. Read through your inbox, collecting to-do items on a paper list first. Then merge it with your existing task list. Then, and only then, start going through your task list to accomplish items.</p>
<p>Let&rsquo;s say you&rsquo;re an evil super-genius and you&rsquo;re making plans to take over the world. (We&rsquo;re just saying this. I&rsquo;m sure it isn&rsquo;t true. After all, what are the chances there are <em>two</em> super-geniuses discussing email overload on one podcast?) You create a plan to build a doomsday device and hold the world hostage. You have another plan to get the maps of the secret tunnels under the Library of Congress so you can steal the Gutenberg bible and oppress free speech in print. And, of course, you have your old standby: raising a zombie army to pursue world domination.</p>
<h2><strong>Create a To Do List</strong></h2>
<p>Start by pulling your tasks away from your email. Get out a pencil and paper where you&rsquo;ll write a temporary to-do list as you go through your inbox. Use a real pencil and paper because you want to make this a little difficult. This is one time when you <em>do</em> want to be hard on yourself. Anything that isn&rsquo;t worth the effort to write down by hand, you should ignore. This forces you to do a bit of screening.</p>
<p>Read each email and ask yourself the question, &ldquo;What is the to-do item for me in this message?&rdquo; Then, write the item down and move to the next email.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>Everyone Has Their Own Agenda for You</strong></h2>
<p>Each of your Dastardly Initiatives has one manager who you coordinate with. You have a Zombie manager, a secret Library of Congress manager, and, of course, your Doomsday Device Engineer. All three send emails this morning.</p>
<p>Your Zombie manager needs a logo for the Zombie army. Write down &ldquo;Hire designer for Zombie army logo&rdquo; on your temporary list. Your Library of Congress contact says he needs a fake entrance ID to get inside. Right now, the only action you&rsquo;ll take is to wrote &ldquo;Acquire Library of Congress credentials&rdquo; on your temporary list. Lastly, your Doomsday Engineer ran out of yellow cake uranium (AGAIN!) and they need more. And the engineer thinks he is top priority, so he has been emailing every 20 minutes or so, burying your inbox in useless chatter.</p>
<p>It would be <em>so</em> tempting just to run out, grab your villainous crew, and snag some uranium. But don&rsquo;t! Just add &ldquo;Acquire uranium&rdquo; to your list. Now that you have your list, it&rsquo;s time to decide what to do first.</p>
<p>You haven&rsquo;t acted on any of the emails yet. This is good! Because you don&rsquo;t even know if <em>any</em> of them deserve any of your time at all. For that, you need to look at them in the context of your entire task list, not just the tasks that came from your email.</p>
<h2><strong>Prioritize</strong></h2>
<p>Review your paper temporary task list. Also look at your master task list. Then, add your incoming email tasks to your list at the place that reflects their actual priority relative to your job overall. Urgent but non-important incoming email should get ignored, in favor of important tasks on your existing list.</p>
<p>It will be tempting to organize by how urgent each of your managers has made their task seem to be. Your inundation of Doomsday Device uranium emails may feel the most important because of his persistence. But as you review your other tasks, your feelings may change. After all, Uranium has a long half-life, so the yellow cake can wait.</p>
<p class="qdt-pull-quote-left">Your prompt response just encourages the parasites to email more!</p>
<p>If you need guidance on how to prioritize tasks, and understanding the difference between urgency and importance, see the previous Get-It-Done Guy article <a href="/node/3659" target="_blank">How to Prioritize Your Life.</a></p>
<p>Indeed, the engineer says the uranium isn&rsquo;t actually needed until next week, it would just &quot;be fun to have it early.&quot; Your Library agent, however, says that the ID must be secured within two days or the security codes will be changed. This is now the most urgent task. After all, you can&rsquo;t take over the world without a priceless artifact to hold hostage.</p>
<p>The uranium is certainly still important. But it&rsquo;s now clear that there&rsquo;s a more urgent and important task to do first. Plus your Doomsday Engineer should learn that sometimes the less squeaky wheel gets the uranium. Clearly, the Zombie army logo is prioritized last. It is so cool to have a soaring zombie eagle for your undead army&rsquo;s emblem, but it is not as urgent or important as weapons grade nuclear explosives.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Actually we could debate that one. But for now, you&rsquo;ve prioritized the tasks on your list. Now it&rsquo;s time to get them done.</p>
<hr />
<h2><strong>Do the Tasks</strong></h2>
<p>Your tasks are prioritized. You have a pencil and paper list of the things you need to accomplish. It&rsquo;s time to do them. But remember: do your tasks in priority order. That way, you&rsquo;ll make sure you&rsquo;re spending your time on the tasks that are most important, not simply humoring needy people like your Doomsday Engineer.</p>
<p>So with a few sinister phone calls, you arrange for the Library of Congress credentials. Then you call Valerie Plame and leave a message asking if she can help you obtain some Uranium. And then you have time for the last task of the day. You hire a designer for the Zombie army logo. You will strike fear into the hearts of the masses!</p>
<p>Turn the table on email, and make it your slave. Scan your inbox and turn it into a written to-do list, without taking any action. Merge the list into your overall task list, prioritize everything in the context of your total job, and then&mdash;and only then&mdash;get to work.</p>
<p>This is Stever Robbins. Follow Get-It-Done Guy on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/getitdoneguy" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/getitdoneguy" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit <a href="http://steverrobbins.com/" target="_blank">SteverRobbins.com</a>,</p>
<p>Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!</p>
<p><em>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com" target="_blank">Shutterstock.</a></em></p>Tue, 16 Aug 2016 01:40:11 -0400Tue, 16 Aug 2016 01:40:11 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/email/how-to-tame-your-email-inbox-with-a-pencil-and-paper5 Back-to-School Necessities That You Can&#039;t Buy in a Storehttp://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/back-to-school/5-back-to-school-necessities-that-you-cant-buy-in-a-store
<p>As summer winds down, parents and children have to gear up for a brand new school year.&nbsp;While most school districts provide plenty of helpful school supply lists for kids to start off their new school year&mdash;# 2 pencils, binders and organizers, scientific calculators and everything in between&mdash;there are also some very important items that can&#39;t be purchased.<img alt="" class="qdt-wrap-right" height="299" src="http://quickanddirtytips.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_medium/public/images/8533/backtoschool.jpg?itok=LZijP2h5" width="448" /></p>
<p>Mighty Mommy shares five things your kids really need for this upcoming school year that you won&rsquo;t find in the back-to-school aisles.</p>
<h2><strong>#1:&nbsp; Patience</strong></h2>
<p>The one tool that all parents need, no matter the time of year, is&nbsp;patience and if you have it, then you and your kids can have an A+ school year! Summertime causes us all, parents and kids alike, to go into relaxation mode. It&#39;s easier to be patient in Summer when everyone seems less demanding and less pressured. But come Fall, every child has a demand and often all demands are landing on you at the same time.&nbsp;Because of the sheer newness of hectic <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/school-age/transitioning-from-summer-to-back-to-school" target="_blank">back-to-school schedules</a>, patience is perhaps of greatest asset for all parents. Going back to a classroom routine, getting used to new teachers and classmates, and learning how to manage homework and activity schedules can be overwhelming for kids. The new school year is generally the time of year I see my kids act out more and test the waters to see what they can and can&rsquo;t get away with.&nbsp; When I hold it together and stay calm and patient, it has a ripple effect on the rest of my family and helps keep them grounded. So practice as much patience as possible when those school bells ring in a few weeks. <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/behavior/how-to-stop-yelling-at-your-kids" target="_blank">See Also: How To Stop Yelling At Your Kids</a></p>
<h2><strong>#2:&nbsp; Positive Attitude</strong></h2>
<p>For lots of parents, Summer is the single most upbeat season of the year. Life seems carefree and&mdash;dare I say it&mdash;fun! But that can all change in a heartbeat when we realize that <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/organization/how-to-establish-a-daily-routine-for-your-family" target="_blank">structure</a> and endless commitments are about to take hold when the new school year arrives. That doesn&rsquo;t have to be the case if you enroll yourself in one of the best classes you can benefit from all year long&mdash;maintaining a positive attitude.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I know from experience that my eight kids respond to the tone set by myself and their father. If one of us is having a bad day, my kids get tense and usually follow suit. &nbsp;But when we lighten up, joke around, and find something positive to focus on in the midst of fall chaos or anything else that is causing us strain, it teaches our children to do the same.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/school-age/power-positive-words?page=all" target="_blank">Practicing to be positive is definitely a choice</a>&nbsp;you make as a person and a parent. One of the best pieces of parenting advice I received years ago from my Mom was that no matter what, try and <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/mental-health/self-care/15-ways-to-celebrate-national-smile-week" target="_blank">share a smile with your kids</a> every day. It&rsquo;s an instant way to make them feel loved!</p>
<h2><strong>#3:&nbsp; An Organized Home</strong></h2>
<p>An important skill that will help your children as they grow, as well as when they&nbsp;<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Dirty-After-College-ebook/dp/B00842H6VC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1349280679&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=quick+and+dirty+tips+for+life+after+college" target="_blank">leave the nest entirely</a>, is learning to stay organized.&nbsp;If your household isn&rsquo;t organized to begin with, then you can use this as a teaching opportunity for the entire family as you work together to get all the rooms in your home&nbsp;<a href="http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/how-to-get-rid-of-clutter-fast.aspx" target="_blank">clutter-free</a>. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Make a list of some of your clutter habits<strong>.</strong>&nbsp;Then, once you identify your bad habits, pick one to change and one replacement habit. For example, instead of letting your mail pile up on your kitchen counter for a week (or two), follow the&nbsp;<a href="http://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/tackle-paperwork-part2.aspx" target="_blank">Domestic CEO&rsquo;s easy tips to handle the mail</a>&nbsp;every single day.</p>
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<p>Or, instead of letting your child&rsquo;s clean&nbsp;<a href="http://domesticceo.quickanddirtytips.com/laundry-room-essentials.aspx" target="_blank">laundry sit on her bureau or the closet floor</a>, show her how to put it away correctly so that she&rsquo;ll get into the habit of respecting her things and her&nbsp;environment&mdash;and avoid shuffling through messy piles to find a clean pair of socks.&nbsp;Start small by choosing just one habit, and pick one that you feel confident about changing.&nbsp;Once your home starts getting (and staying) organized, you will all have more time to relax and enjoy quality family time. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/organization/6-rules-for-an-organized-home" target="_blank">See Also: &nbsp;Domestic CEO&#39;s 6 Rules for an Organized Home</a></p>
<h2><strong>#4: Plenty of Rest</strong></h2>
<p>Getting <a href="https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/children-and-sleep" target="_blank">7-8 hours of sleep per night is very important</a> to our physical and emotional health. Of course, with everything we need to do throughout the day, many of us deprive ourselves of the proper rest. Families are often so busy that they steal extra time from their sleep, creating a bad habit that can last a lifetime.&nbsp;By establishing a regular bedtime for yourself and your kids, you will be setting up a very important habit that will not only benefit your kids during the school year, but will carry over into your child&rsquo;s adulthood.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For example, if your 10th&nbsp;grader loves to leave school projects until the last minute, figuring he can pull late nights on a regular basis to get the job done, it&rsquo;s time to make a change. Establish a family habit that homework, projects, and your own professional deadlines must be completed by 9pm the night before they are due, no excuses. You will set a positive guideline for your entire family that once 9pm arrives, if the school science experiment is still not done and the review of your company&rsquo;s payroll policy is not even close to being rectified, it&rsquo;s going to have to wait until the following day.&nbsp;No one in the family wants to squirm under pressure when a deadline isn&rsquo;t met, so set the example yourself by completing work and home tasks on time so your family will follow. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/family-time/5-ways-to-help-your-family-sleep-better" target="_blank">See Also: &nbsp;5 Ways to Help Your Family Sleep Better</a></p>
<h2><strong>#5:&nbsp; A Full Tank</strong></h2>
<p>Today&rsquo;s kids live very full and scheduled lives.&nbsp;While there is nothing wrong with that, it&rsquo;s also important to learn that we all need down time on a regular basis to recharge our batteries.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Remember: You don&rsquo;t have to accept every invitation or commitment that comes your way during this new school year.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Get into the habit of incorporating &ldquo;time for self&rdquo; each and every week for all members of the family.&nbsp;Let your children see you lying on the couch reading or <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/family-time/4-reasons-youll-absolutely-love-adult-coloring-books" target="_blank">sitting at the table doodling</a>.&nbsp;Take walks at the beach or in the park together.&nbsp;When our kids and other family members see us creating regular &ldquo;me time&rdquo; it teaches them the important lesson that it is not selfish to step away from our harried schedules to refuel our tanks, but rather that it&rsquo;s vital to our overall healthy well-being. <a href="http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/school-age/5-ways-that-%E2%80%98selfish-parenting%E2%80%99-can-benefit-your-family" target="_blank">&nbsp;See Also: &nbsp;5 Ways Selfish Parenting can Benefit Your Family</a></p>
<p>How do you prepare your family for the new school year?</p>
<p>Share your thoughts in the comment section at<a href="http://quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy">quickanddirtytips.com/mighty-mommy</a>&nbsp;or post your ideas on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MightyMommy" target="_blank">Mighty Mommy Facebook page</a>. You can also connect with me on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/mightymommy" target="_blank">Twitter @MightyMommy</a>&nbsp;or email me at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:mommy@quickanddirtytips.com">mommy@quickanddirtytips.com</a>.&nbsp; Visit my family-friendly boards at&nbsp;<a href="http://pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT" target="_blank">Pinterest.com/MightyMommyQDT</a>.</p>Sun, 14 Aug 2016 23:29:42 -0400Sun, 14 Aug 2016 23:29:42 -0400http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/parenting/back-to-school/5-back-to-school-necessities-that-you-cant-buy-in-a-store